Turn of the Century Events Trivia Quiz

Answer: Skovde

Saint Helena, also referred to as "Saint Helen of Sköfde" or "Helena of Skövde" was born into a noble family c. 1101. She was noted for her generosity and providing belongings to the poor. These donations included materials and wealth used to help build the Vambs Church (now called the Church of Saint Helena) in Skövde.

Unfortunately, her life came to a tragic end following the murder of her daughter's husband. It was discovered that he had been beaten and abused by her husband and the servants from Helena's farm took revenge on him.

The husband's family blamed Helena for his murder and killed her while she was on her way to church in 1160. She was officially canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1165.

Answer: The Fat

John Komnenos the Fat attempted a coup to try and overthrow the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos on July 31, 1201. From the beginning, the reign of the emperor was troubled as members of the aristocracy conspired against him due to his demand for new revenues and policies. Komnenos was a relatively unimportant figure within the court but had a high level of discontent for the emperor. On July 31, John Komnenos and his conspirators broke into the Hagia Sophia where he was proclaimed emperor and crowned by a monk. Sources suggest that when John Komnenos sat on the throne, he broke it due to his weight.

The coup was relatively short lived and most of the conspirators were forced away by loyalist forces. Komnenos was captured and beheaded where his head and body were put on display for all to see.

Answer: Florence

The Guelphs were a faction that supported the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. In the mid 13th Century, there was a division within the faction ultimately forming the "Black Guelphs (who continued to support the Papacy" and the "White Guelphs (who broke apart and opposed the Papacy)".

When the Black Guelphs were able to gain the support of Pope Boniface VIII and the French prince Charles of Valois around 1300, the White Guelphs were savagely persecuted. For a period of six days starting on November 1, 1301, the Black Guelphs entered and destroyed the city of Florence to attempt to install a new government.

As a result, the Italian nobleman Cante dei Gabrielli, a powerful Black Guelph took control over the city. The famous poet Dante Alighieri was exiled from the city by the end of 1302 being a White Guelph supporter. Following these events, the city of Florence entered a period of strife and disaster. Examples include the great fire of 1304 which destroyed much of the city and the Black Death in 1347 which was estimated to have killed 1/3 of the population.

Answer: Heresy

One of the first movements towards the Reformation was a belief system known as "Lollardy". William Sawtrey, an English Catholic priest, held many of these beliefs including the rejection of Catholic saints and rejection of the of the doctrine of transubstantiation.

After being investigated in 1399 for spreading these beliefs, he was charged with heresy by Henry le Despenser. After renouncing his Lollard beliefs, Sawtrey was released but continued to preach Lollardy. On February 23, 1401, Sawtrey was charged with heresy for a second time. Three days later, Sawtrey was officially convicted and sentenced to death.

He was publicly burned at the stake in March 1401, becoming the first Lollard to be executed for heresy.

Answer: Ottaviano Petrucci

The Harmonice Musices Odhecaton or "One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music" were an anthology of secular songs. Petrucci's historical significance is important as his collections are the earliest known printed forms of polyphonic music. Between 1501 and 1509, three volumes of chansons, five motets, and sixteen books of masses appeared.

His methods for printing music were attempted by many other printers, but often they would offset their prints resulting in musical notes that were either too "high" or "low" on the sheets.

By the late 1520s, Petrucci's methods of printing would be replaced by easier and cheaper methods perfected by French music publisher Pierre Attaingnant.

Answer: Treaty of Lyon

The Franco-Savoyard War took place in 1600-01 between the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Savoy. Following the death of Marquis Gian Gabriele I in 1548, an enclave known as Saluzzo was annexed by the French in 1548. By the late 1580s, Charles Emmanuel I, the Duke of Savoy, contested this annexation and wanted to acquire Saluzzo for himself. By 1588, he would occupy Saluzzo. By 1599, French King Henry IV suggested two alternatives regarding the Marquisate of Saluzzo, one of those being to return Saluzzo to France. Not wanting to give in to the French king's demands, Charles Emmanuel I caused Henry IV to declare war against the duchy in August 1600. Unfortunately for Emmanuel I, he was outnumbered and overrun by the French army.

By year's end, both the Bresse region and Savoy were occupied by King Henry IV and the French army. The Treaty of Lyon was signed on January 17, 1601 and ended the war. Under the new agreement, King Henry IV was required to give back Saluzzo to Charles Emmanuel I while in return, the French were paid 150,000 livres and acquired various regions including Bresse.

Answer: Seppuku

Following a failed attempt to kill Kira Yoshinaka, the highest ranking official regarding ceremonial matters within the Shogunate, Asano Naganori was forced to complete the Japanese ritual known as seppuku. After drawing his sword, Naganori failed to complete his killing of Yoshinaka in the corridors of Edo Castle and he himself became wounded. Seppuku is a ritual of suicide in which the act is disembowelment.

The ritual is usually done for two reasons. The first was for a samurai die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies while the second was given as a capital punishment for one's crimes (as in the case of Naganori).

In 1603, supporters of Naganori had acted on secret planning to assassinate Yoshinaka themselves to avenge the death of Naganori and succeeded.

These supporters ultimately surrendered themselves, and like Naganori, were also forced to commit the seppuku ritual.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

After defeating John Adams in the 1800 Presidential Election, Thomas Jefferson served two terms as the President of the United States of America which ended on March 4, 1809. During his reign, Jefferson declared war on Northern Africa in what was known as the Barbary War, was able to acquire the Louisiana territory from France in 1803, and the abolition of the slave trade in the United States.

Answer: American League

The American League began as an official league with eight teams. Those teams included the Baltimore Orioles (eventually becoming the New York Yankees), Boston Americans (becoming the Boston Red Sox), Chicago White Stockings (becoming the Chicago White Sox), Cleveland Blues (becoming the Cleveland Indians), Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers (becoming the modern day Baltimore Orioles), Philadelphia Athletics (eventually becoming the Oakland Athletics), and the Washington Senators (becoming the Minnesota Twins).

By 1903, the American League and the National League were competing against each other for the World Series. Only twice during the 20th Century the World Series was not competed for (1904 and 1994). While baseball is essentially played the same way between the American and National leagues, there is one notable difference between the two leagues. In 1973, the American league adopted the designated hitter rule. Unlike the National League where the pitcher must be a batter in the line-up, the American league allows a "designated hitter" to replace the pitcher in the batting line-up.

Answer: Over $2 trillion in Pentagon funds was missing

During his Monday September 10, 2001 speech, Donald Rumsfeld attacked the Pentagon bureaucracy as being one of the greatest threats to the security of the United States of America. He stated that it was not the actual people of the Pentagon, but rather the "processes" that are threatening.

"The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America. This adversary is one of the world's last bastions of central planning. It governs by dictating five-year plans. From a single capital, it attempts to impose its demands across time zones, continents, oceans and beyond. With brutal consistency, it stifles free thought and crushes new ideas. It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk...

...The adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy. Not the people, but the processes. Not the civilians, but the systems. Not the men and women in uniform, but the uniformity of thought and action that we too often impose on them."

During his speech, he went on to state that America must develop new weapons to deter the many global threats that surround the United States, but that it costs money to do so. Unfortunately, due to what he referred to as "financial systems that are decades old", money within the Pentagon could not be accounted for.

"The technology revolution has transformed organizations across the private sector, but not ours, not fully, not yet. We are, as they say, tangled in our anchor chain. Our financial systems are decades old. According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions."

Tragically, the following day at 8:46 am, the first of four flights crashed in what would become the largest terrorist attack in world history. When the statistics came about, the numbers were astounding. Over 6,000 people had been injured as a result of the attacks and nearly 3000 people were killed. It is believed that over $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage was caused as a result of the destruction. The Department of Homeland Security was established as a direct result of the attacks to improve border, immigration, and cyber securities.